FIGHT CLUB

TYLER

Wow. That's pretty strong.

JACK

... yeah.

TYLER

Do you have family you can call?

JACK

My mother would just go into hysterics. My Dad ... Don't know where

he is. Only knew him for six years. Then, he ran off to a new city

and married another woman and had more kids. Every six years -- new

city, new family. He was setting up franchises.

Tyler smiles, snorts, shakes his head.

TYLER

A generation of men raised by women. Look what it's done to you.

JACK

To me?

TYLER

We're on our third pitcher of beer and you still can't ask me.

JACK

Huh?

TYLER

Why don't you cut the shit and ask me if you can stay at my place?

JACK

Well ... uh ...

TYLER

Why don't you cut the shit and ask me if you can stay at my place?

JACK

Would that be a problem?

PG 35

TYLER

Is it a problem for you to ask me?

JACK

Can I stay at your place?

TYLER

Yeah.

JACK

Thanks.

TYLER

-- If you do me one favor.

JACK

What's that?

TYLER

I want you to hit me as hard as you can.

*FREEZE PICTURE*

JACK (V.O.)

Let me tell you a little bit about Tyler Durden.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP - FILM FRAME

--And we can see it's a PENIS.

INT. PROJECTIONIST ROOM - THEATRE - NIGHT

Jack, in the foreground, FACES CAMERA. In the BACKGROUND, Tyler sits

at a bench, looking at individual FRAMES that have been cut out of

movies. Near him, the PROJECTOR rolls a film.

JACK

Tyler works some nights as a projectionist. A film doesn't come in one

big reel ...

Tyler speaks to Jack normally, not to the camera.

TYLER

In an old theatre, two projectors are used. I have to change

projectors at the exact second so the audience never sees the break

when one reel starts and one reel runs out. You can see two dots on

screen at the end of a reel -- this is the warning.

PG 36

JACK

He splices single frames of genitalia from porno movies into family

films.

TYLER

One-twenty-forth of a second. That's how long the penis flashes up

there. Towering, slippery, red and terrible, and no one knows they've

seen it.

Jack and Tyler watch the audience of PARENTS and CHILDREN as an ANIMAL

adventure MOVIE plays. Suddenly, children start becoming uncomfortable

and squirming. Some start CRYING. Some THROW UP.

JACK

Tyler also worked as a ...

INT. LARGE BANQUET HALL - NIGHT

Tyler moves the cart around one of many tables, ladling out soup.

Jack stands in the same position. FACING CAMERA.

JACK

... banquet waiter at the luxurious Pressman Hotel.

The GUESTS are dressed in resplendent clothes, reeking of wealth and

privilege. They command the WAITERS with snaps of the finger.

Complaints pop like gunshots. The stiff-necked CATERING MANAGER

contemptuously hawk-eyes the waiters. It's hellish.

INT. SERVICE ELEVATOR - NIGHT

Jack turns and WE PAN to Tyler, standing by a CART with a giant SOUP

TUREEN and bowls. His hands are at his open fly and he's in position

to piss into the soup.

TYLER

Don't watch. I can't if you watch me.

CAMERA PANS to original position as Jack continues TO CAMERA.

JACK

He was a guerrilla terrorist of the food service industry.

TYLER (O.S.)

Shit. I can't go.

PG 37

After a beat, the sound of WATER SPLASHING the floor. Jack peeks and

sees Tyler pouring out a water glass with one hand, the other hand at

his crotch.

TYLER

... Oh, yeah. *Oh*, yeah.

Jack turns back TO CAMERA.

JACK

He farted on creme brulee; he sneezed on braised endive; and, with

creme of mushroom soup, he ... he ...

TYLER (O.S.)

Go ahead. Say it.

JACK

Well, you get the idea.

EXT. PARKING LOT OF TAVERN - RESUMING

Tyler and Jack come out of the bar; Jack shakes his head.

JACK

What?

TYLER

Hit me as hard as you can.

Tyler leads Jack into an open area, lit by a streetlamp.

JACK

I don't know about this, Tyler.

TYLER

I don't know either. I want to find out. We're virgins. Neither one

of us has ever been hit.

JACK

You've never been in a fight?

TYLER

I didn't say that. I said I've never been hit.

JACK

That's good, isnt' it?

TYLER

Listen to me -- hit me. You're the only one I ever asked.

PG 38

JACK

Me?

Jack stares at him. The five drunken GUYS -- the same ones who stared

at them earlier -- have formed a distant perimeter, sensing a fight.

Jack glances at them, then back at Tyler.

JACK

I've ... never hit anyone in my life.

TYLER

Go crazy. Let it rip.

JACK

Where do you want it? In the face or the stomach?

TYLER

Surprise me.

Jack swings a wide, clumsy roundhouse that connects with Tyler's neck.

It makes a dull, soft flat sound. Tyler's neck turns red.

JACK

Shit. Sorry. That didn't count. Let me try again.

TYLER

Like hell. That counted.

Tyler shoots out a straight punch to Jack's chest. The impact makes a

dull, barely-audible sound and Jack falls back against a car. The Guys

whoop and clap, moving closer. Jack's eyes involuntarily well up with

tears. He and Tyler breathe HEAVILY and sprout BEADS of SWEAT on their

faces.

TYLER

How do you feel?

JACK

Strange.

TYLER

But a *good* strange.

JACK

Is it?

TYLER

We've crossed the threshold.

PG 39

JACK

... I guess so.

TYLER

You want to call it off?

JACK

Call what off?

TYLER

The fight.

JACK

*What* fight?

TYLER

I'm tired of watching only professionals. I don't want to die without

any scars. How much can you really know about yourself if you never go

at it, one-on-one?

JACK

Tyler ...

TYLER

Are you a pussy?

Jack swings another roundhouse that slams right under Tyler's ear. The

sound, soft and flat. Tyler punches Jack in the stomach. The Guys

move closer, cheering the fight. Tyler and Jack move clumsily,

throwing punches. They breathe heavier, their eyes red and bright.

They drool saliva and blood. They each hurt badly and become dizzier

from every impact.

JACK (V.O.)

If you've never been in a fight, you wonder about getting hurt, about

what you're capable of doing against another man.

Tyler and Jack keep fighting. The guys mix laughter with their cheers,

looking at each other in wondrous amusement.

EXT. CURBSIDE - LATER

Jack and Tyler sit on the curb, staring at the sparse headlights on the

nearby freeway. Their eyes are glazed with endorphin-induced serenity.

They look at each other. Laugh. Look away.

TYLER

What were you fighting?

PG 40

JACK

My job. My boss, who fiddles with my DOS execute commands. Marla, at

my support groups. Everything that's broken and doesn't work in my

life. What were you fighting?

TYLER

My father.

A pause as Jack studies Tyler's face.

JACK

We should do this again sometime.

Tyler cracks a smile, gives a sidelong glance to Jack, then returns his

stare to the night sky.

EXT. PAPER STREET - NIGHT

A street sign: "PAPER STREET". An abandoned PAPER MILL sits on one

side and only ONE HOUSE on the other, the rest of the land being

undeveloped grass and weeds. It's an old, grand, three-story gone to

seed. It looks abandoned, too.

INT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - LIVING ROOM -SAME

Tyler leads Jack up a staircase to a 2ND FLOOR LANDING, then opens the

door to a room.

INT. ROOM - CONTINUOUS

Jack steps into the room, sits down on the old bed. It CREAKS. Dust

drifts upward.

JACK (V.O.)

I don't know how Tyler found the house. He'd been there for half a

year. It was waiting for re-zoning or something.

CUT TO:

EXT. LOU'S TAVERN PARKING LOT - NIGHT

LONG SHOT - ZOOMING OUT - A group of SIX GUYS watching TWO GUYS in a

fist fight. CUT TO:

INT. PAPER ST. HOUSE - KITCHEN - MORNING

Jack, his face showing new bruises and cuts, his knuckles puffy, shoos

away cockroaches as he makes coffee with a wire-mesh strainer. He has

a happy little smile.

PG 41

JACK (V.O.)

Nothing worked. The rusty plumbing leaked. Turning on a light meant

that another light in the house went out. The stairs were ready to

collapse.

CUT TO:

EXT. CONVENIENCE STORE PARKING LOT - NIGHT

LONG SHOT - ZOOMING OUT - Resuming from previous shot, getting further

away, but now with TEN GUYS around two guys fighting. CUT TO:

INT. SHOWER - MORNING

Jack, showing some new bruises, with even fatter knuckles, turns on the

water. LOUD VIBRATION from the walls. Water spits in starts, then

dribbles out. CUT TO:

INT. KITCHEN - MORNING

Tyler, in a nice suit, checks over the bars of soap in his briefcase,

then shuts it. Jack walks in, dressed in his work clothes. He picks

up a battered old saucepan with boiling coal-black coffee and sips. He

offers it to Tyler, who sips. Jack pulls a TOOTH out of his mouth and

throws it into the sink. They both walk out the door.